Between January 2005 and October 2011 HomeServe’s profit-driven culture led the customers being treated unfairly.
HomeServe has paid approximately £12.9m to affected customers in redress, and is expected to pay a total of £16.8m.
Tracey McDermott, FCA’s director of enforcement and financial crime, said: “HomeServe promises to provide customers with peace of mind when things go wrong. In fact the firm’s culture, controls and remuneration structures meant that staff were focussed on quantity not quality and there were customers that paid the price for that.
"Firms must put the interests of customers at the heart of their business if we are to restore trust and confidence in financial services. True change in the culture within the financial services industry will only be achieved when firms and their management accept and deliver on their responsibility to ensure that customers are treated fairly."
HomeServe agreed to settle at an early stage of the investigation, thereby qualifying for a 30% discount under the FCA’s executive settlement procedures. Were it not for this discount the fine would have been £43,782,058.
